Report: More Than One in Ten Syrian Refugees have ‘Positive’ View of Islamic State

More than 10 percent of Syrian refugees say they have a “positive” view of the Islamic State (ISIS), according to a recent publication by the American Enterprise Institute.

AEI – citing a 2014 study – noted that “a disturbing subset of 13% of Syrian refugees say their view of ISIS is ‘positive’ or ‘positive to some extent.'”

The 2014 study found that most Syrian refugees – 83 percent – view the Islamic State terrorist group at the very least “negative to some extent.”

“Overall, 85% of Arabs across the Middle East have a negative view of ISIS, while 11% see them positively,” reported AEI’s Marc A. Theissen. “The negative numbers for the region would be higher were they not skewed by the views of Palestinians, nearly a quarter of whom have a positive view of ISIS.”

According to the data, Palestinians were the people with the highest positive view of ISIS, while Lebanon had the least – only one percent.

The countries below are listed from the least to the most with a positive view of the terrorist group:

Lebanon – one percent positive view of ISIS

Iraq – six percent positive view of ISIS

Jordan – nine percent positive view of ISIS

Egypt – 10 percent positive view of ISIS

Saudi Arabia – 10 percent positive view of ISIS

Syrian Refugees – 13 percent positive view of ISIS

Tunisia – 13 percent positive view of ISIS

Palestine – 24 percent positive view of ISIS

Theissen notes that with the political debate over whether or not to allow more Syrian refugees to come into the United States, “even if the vetting process were perfect, it does not account for the more than 1 in 10 refugees who may not be ISIS operatives, but are ISIS sympathizers – and thus potential ISIS recruits down the line.”

The House passed legislation to beef up the scrutiny process on admitting refugees from Syrian and Iraq last Thursday, but it is unclear whether or not the Senate will take up that legislation following the Thanksgiving holiday.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told Breitbart News he believes Congress has the votes to defund President Obama’s refugee resettlement plan during the vote on the spending bill that faces a December 11th deadline, but it’s up to GOP leadership on whether or not to lead that fight.